Roman Provincial History and Archaeology

This dissertation is a study of the geographical, historical, social, and religious context of Plutarch's Erotikos ( Mor. 748A-771E), a philosophical dialogue between Plutarch and his friends at Thespiai and the Valley of the Muses in Boiotia, that considers the role of love (eros ) and ...

The primary sources for this book were epigraphic monuments and accounts of Graeco-Roman authors. The focus was on the monuments mentioning provincial and local officials (provincial governors, military prefects, praepositi, principes, decurions, duumviri, aediles, quaestors, mining procurators, etc.). Moreover, this thesis also analyses the inscriptions mentioning the names of indigenous communities, Roman municipia, and colonies. Such methodology facilitated the study of administrative units that are unknown from written records such as municipium Faustinianum or the mining district of northwestern Bosnia. The book is accordingly structured in such a way that each thematic unit is followed by a catalogue of epigraphic monuments.

The present town of Jimena de la Frontera, a municipality belonging to the Campo de Gibraltar in the province of Cadiz, seems to be there waiting for someone to change it, considering that it has a majestic past and a wide wealth of cultural heritage. It is in the hill of the Castle of this town (Sant Cristóbal hill) where apparently has been concentrated the civic centers in antiquity, although there is an occupation since prehistoric times. Here passed the Phoenicians, who will give at city the name of Oba, which will have it in the middle of emergency and contact with Carteia, Bailo and other population centers of the region. It will be in Roman times, around the 1st century BC when the municipality took the name of Res Publica Obensis. In this work we take a tour of this process by placing the site of Jimena de la Frontera in his historical context.

Colatio/Stari trg pri Slovenj Gradcu lies on the southwestern outskirts of the Slovenj Gradec basin along the former Roman road. It was discovered and partly explored by Dr. Hans Winkler between 1909 and 1912. Colatio is a lowland settlement which was inhabited as early as the 1st c. AD and remained populated until the early 5th c. AD (temple remains, residential area and cemetery). In the center of walled funerary plots, luxurious tombs were built for the rural elite. Tomb I was the most thoroughly researched as it revealed burial remains of one man and two women which took place in the third quarter of the 1st c. AD. From the few preserved inscriptions, we have learnt that the populace was indigenous and Celticized with a fraction of Latin names as well.

Repairing the portico of a building on the island of Issa at his own expense helped the legate Quintus Numerius Rufus, the patron of the city, to enter the history of the Eastern Adriatic coast during Caesar’s administration in the province of Illyricum (58-50 BC). Ascertained by an inscription found on Issa, the presence of Caesar’s legate on the island in that very important historical period drew a great deal of interest among Croatian and foreign researchers long ago, particularly his function, year of arrival and reasons for his presence. However, as there have been no recent papers dealing with the subject even since important B. Gabričević’s paper Issa i njen patron Q. Numerius Rufus, this author has included here a recent analysis of several aspects of the presence of legate Quintus Numerius Rufus in Illyricum. The available arguments supporting the accurate dating of his arrival to Issa are analyzed, mistakes in the earlier hypotheses on Numerius’ function are indicated, and Numerius’ experience as one of the principal reasons for his  appointment in Illyricum is underlined.